Today’s issue of the International Herald Tribune includes a program titled Dual Degree Programs are Gathering Steam.
http://www.nytimes.com/...
These programs are gathering popularity in Europe. They’re gathering popularity with prospective employers, too. The U.S. has lagged behind. The article, while discussing the need for multiple disciplines, also brings attention (tangentially) to another issue: the need for good foreign language instruction in America. Our nation’s approach to foreign language instruction is not just inadequate: It’s a national failing.
And before the anti-union people pipe in, let me just say: This is not an issue of teacher quality. It’s not the result of bad unions making things worse for kids. It’s a matter of national planning, or the lack thereof. It’s one in a long list of reasons why the absence of a national curriculum impedes students’ progress.
In a globalized economy, a command of languages is an elementary skill. Literally. That’s where instruction should begin. Does it? Sadly, no. We begin teaching languages at the secondary level. Most students, given enough test-prep will, at this level, pass a standardized test or two. But how many of them can read, write and speak college level French, German, Mandarin, Japanese, Hindi…? How can we expect them to when we begin instruction way too late? It has been well established that foreign language instruction must begin in early childhood.
Immersion in a foreign language should begin in pre-school. (So should music instruction; but that’s another issue.) And it shouldn’t happen for one period a day. If a child is in school for four hours, half that time should be conducted in a foreign language. At the end of a single school year most children will be bilingual. Their training should continue from there.
We needn’t worry which language they learn as long as there’s one they can consistently learn from pre-school through high school. Bilingual individuals’ brains get wired in such a way that learning an additional language in adulthood is easier. Here’s an added benefit: Bilingual people can hold more bits of information in their working memories as compared with monolinguals.
Since it’s unlikely that we’ll have a quality curriculum anytime soon I recommend the following:
If you’re a parent who speaks a second language, speak that language to your child several days a week. Get him/her instruction in writing your language as soon as he/she is in first grade.
If you speak no other languages, find someone who does. Spend two or three afternoons a week with your bilingual friend and your child. It doesn’t have to be formal. Go shopping; go to the park, whatever. Just make sure your friend speaks only in his/her language. Your child will pick it up naturally. Again, in first grade find someone who can provide writing instruction.
And no: Pig Latin doesn’t count.